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Ask TUAW: Syncing photos, compressing and transferring large files, virtual printers, and more
Welcome back to Ask TUAW, our weekly troubleshooting Q&A column. This week we've got questions about syncing photo libraries, compressing and transferring large files, creating a virtual PDF printer, increasing screen readability, and more.As always, your suggestions and questions are welcome. Leave your questions for next week in the comments section at the end of this post. When asking a question, please include which machine you're using and what version of Mac OS X is installed on it (we'll assume you're running Snow Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify).
Ben asks
I have a large iPhoto library and multiple macs in multiple locations. What is the best online solution to put my library online so that I can view/download/upload my pictures from any computer anywhere? I am looking for something that I can host on my own site for security if possible not a shutterfly type solution. I also do not have nor want a .mac account.
My initial thought is that the best way to share an iPhoto library between different macs is with Dropbox; I even found a handy tutorial. This would cost something ($9.99 per month for 50 GB / $19.99 for 100 GB), but would be nearly seamless. Unfortunately, it doesn't meet your requirement of running on your own server. But if you really want to do that I don't think you'll really be able to continue using iPhoto. (In principle you might do it with a network disk, but I suspect you'd find the performance hit unacceptable.)
If all you want to do is host a bunch of photos on your own server you might check out Gallery which is a server-based PHP application that offers various photo organizing and sharing features. Naturally, you could access that from any of your Macs.
Pat asks
I have a third party database application running on 4D that prints records to attached printers without going through the Mac OS X print dialog window (it brings up a software specific dialog that allows font and font size selection as well as which types of records to print). This is running on a Mac Mini with OS 10.4.11 installed. I would like to print to a pdf file but my application won't give me the built in print to pdf option. I can select different printers in page setup. Is there a Mac OS X pdf engine that can be installed like a print driver that appears in my page setup dialog box that the database will recognize?
What you need is CUPS-PDF. You might want to grab a slightly older version for your OS X 10.4 machine, but it will create a virtual printer that you should be able to select within the print dialog. When you do that it dumps your "prints" as PDFs into a folder on your Desktop.
Nirgal asks
I recently was faced with the need to compress an approximately 50 Gig file, so that I can send it by FTP in less than 10,000 years. I know about the built-in compress utility in Leopard/Snow Leopard, command-line options like tar, gzip, and cpio, and StuffIt and other 3rd party apps. My question is, are any of these options noticeably faster than the others? And, in general, are there any advantages to using StuffIt instead of the built-in file compression in OS X?
You certainly don't need to bother with StuffIt, which is more of an artifact of the Mac past than really relevant these days. Frankly, what I would suggest is that you use RAR. In addition to good compression performance, RAR also allows you to break up big files into several smaller files, each of which is easier to upload/download. In fact, if you also includes some PAR files, you'll also get an automated recovery method if something becomes corrupted along the ways.
There are several Mac RAR utilities like UnRarX and RAR Expander, but if you want to use PAR files you'll probably want MacPAR deLuxe.
Maxintech asks
Is there a way to record the sound coming from iphone to computer? I'm recording a tutorial for a game and in certain parts of the game are played simultaneous sounds which difficult to put the sound manually when editing the video. I recorded others tutorials and muted the original video and synchronized the sound manually, but in this case is impracticable.
I think you could simply use a 1/8" audio patch cable from the iPhone. For the best results I'd use the output from an iPhone dock (or similar) to the line in. If you don't have a line in on your Mac, you may need a USB audio interface like the iMic from Griffin.
iGO asks
Is there a setting to make all the system Fonts, Menu's, Text, LARGER, globally? We don't wish to change the native resolution, which displays everything beautifully, but the native resolution display (1920x1200) makes everything too small.
While there has been lots of talk about resolution independence in OS X, it has not yet appeared as general feature. With TinkerTool you can adjust some of the default font settings in OS X. Unfortunately, it will not affect things like the menubar font. While it's not entirely practical she could also use the zoom feature when necessary. Once turned on in the Universal Access Preference Pane it allows you to zoom in on the part of the screen under the mouse cursor if you hold down the Control key and scroll (with a mouse scroll wheel or even two-fingers on the trackpad). Other than that, I'm afraid you would actually have to change the screen resolution to make everything appear bigger.
Josh asks
I have a 27" iMac and a new Mac Mini both running 10.6.2. Is it possible to use Target Display Mode and something like Teleport or Synergy to control the Mini? Or is a second, separate display - directly attached to the Mini - needed?
While, in principle, I think you could do that I suspect you'd be better off to run the Mac mini headless and just use Screen Sharing to control it. If you turn on Screen Sharing in Sharing Preference Pane on the mini (and the mini is on the same network as the iMac) you should see it in the Finder sidebar on the iMac and easily be able to connect to it. If necessary you could connect the mini to the iMac in Target Display Mode in order to set it up and from then on just use Screen Sharing.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Petey said 11:13AM on 12-17-2009
The iPhoto thing could be solved by switching to Picasa and using Picasa Web Albums to sync it across several computers. Google has cheap storage for photos/email now (20gb at $5/yr) so I would jump on that train first.
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Andy S. said 11:47AM on 12-17-2009
I've got an early 2008 Mac Mini hooked up to my home theater (DVI to HDMI and optical mini to TOSLink from the Mac to my receiver, and HDMI from receiver to TV), primarily for running Boxee and Plex. I've set up my Harmony remote to control the Mac with the "Plex" settings, and I use a Logitech DiNovo Mini to control the Mac otherwise. The Mac is configured to sleep after 30 minutes. Sometimes (but not always), switching to the running Mac will result in a blank screen. I can still control the Mac via VNC or screen sharing, and sleeping and then waking the Mac will usually solve the problem (as will switching the source on the receiver away from and back to the Mac sometimes). Is the problem with the order that the devices are powered on, or is there some setting or app I can use to correct this?
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Matthew Kahl said 12:22PM on 12-17-2009
Be careful with Dropbox syncing solutions as described in the article. I've synced my Things.app database in a similar fashion. I've run into a problem when I leave the house with Things.app running, go to work and make a lot of changes in Things.app on my laptop, and then return home. Once I close Things.app on my home machine, the database is written to and Dropbox recognizes it as the latest update (which contains none of my changes at work). I now have to consciously close Things.app whenever I leave the house.
Hopefully my description makes sense. Just something to be mindful of.
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DJFriar said 2:26AM on 12-19-2009
While this is something to be mindful about, it also user-error plain and simple. Unless the application is designed to have multiple people accessing it at once, the behavior you are describing sounds dead on as to what it should be doing. You modified the file remotely, which made it the most current, then modified it again by closing the app at home, which makes it the most current. In this case, the syncing engine (Dropbox or any other platform) is working perfectly, its the user not using it correctly.
Though this can be solved somewhat by the app not using a monolithic data file as well, a la 1password, etc.
Peter Ent said 2:10PM on 12-17-2009
QUESTION for next session:
My partner and I were out shopping the other day and he realized he didn't have his iPhone. We thought it was home, but just to be sure we wanted to use the "Find my Phone" feature of MobileMe. He had the phone configured and had tested it; we just wanted the peace of mind that the phone was safe at home.
Trouble is, we only had my iPhone and could not figure out how to use my iPhone to find his iPhone. Is that possible? Seems like it would be handy.
Running Snow Leopard, Intel iMac
iPhone 3G
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Robert said 3:39PM on 12-17-2009
Not possible yet unfortunately! frequently requested towards apple though.....
Evan said 3:39PM on 12-17-2009
I am sure this question is basic, but here goes anyway: when deleting an app off of my iPhone, I always get the standard "deleting this app will remove all of its data" confirmation message. That's pretty moot when it comes to apps like Facebook or Yelp, as those apps are pulling content from the web, but with apps like standalone games (in particular, games that use save data like Rolando, Zen Bound, etc.), are my game saves backed up when I sync my iPhone with iTunes or is all my game data removed if I un-sync a game with my iPhone? Basically, I want to know if I remove a previously synced game from my iPhone today and load it back on my iPhone tomorrow, will I be met with a "Start New Game" screen?
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GlennAC said 2:45AM on 12-29-2009
Evan, unfortunately, unless something has changed with iPhone game design recently, that is the case. I was disappointed when I discovered this when I had to move Field runners off my iPhone for a short period of time. When synced back to the iPhone I was presented with Start New Game and no saved game history.
What I am wondering is, if you need to free up space temporarily, could you connect your iPhone and initiate a backup/sync, then unsync a game app temporarily to free up space - could you then Restore the iPhone from your last backup and have all the previous game data preserved? Haven't tried it yet, but I imagine that might work. Cheers!
Eric said 3:32PM on 12-17-2009
I'm planning on buying an HP EX495 Mediasmart Home Server soon. I'd like to move my iTunes library from my MacBook Pro to to the EX495 to free up some space on my hard drive. Is there anything special I need to do to make it so that my Macbook constantly connects to the server whenever its on my LAN? I know in Windows you can map drives to servers that will stay in your "My Computer" upon reboot. Is there anything like that I need to do for my Mac?
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mikerhodes1 said 6:39AM on 12-18-2009
in the login settings you can configure your account to open the mapped network connection every time you login in. This can also be done in the background so the window doesn't open
Eric said 8:48AM on 12-18-2009
Hey mikerhodes1 - could you explain how that's done? Thanks for the response!
mikerhodes1 said 9:46AM on 12-18-2009
I'm not in front of my MAc at the moment however from memory if you go into preferences accounts, select the particular user and press the login items button. Press the little + at the bottom and then browse to the folder you want to automatically open and press add... voila :-)
put a tick next to it in the list if you don't want the actual window to open at login.
Hope this helps.
Ron Hollatz said 3:49PM on 12-17-2009
Regarding the photo syncing between multipule macs. Since Apple decided to use packages to hold all the images, is there a backup solution to just sync new images instead of the whole package each time?
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Josh said 4:20PM on 12-17-2009
Question: When my PC crashed and before I took the opportunity to move everything to a Mac, my efforts to recover pictures and other files led to me having multiple copies of each file. Of course, many now have names that are unrelated to the original. Is there any way to sort (and eliminate) duplicate picture files by their content and NOT their name? I'd appreciate any suggestions you have to help me eliminate the duplicates without having to manually go through tens of thousands of files.
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mrakocy said 4:38PM on 12-17-2009
I like that last tip about controlling the mini through screen sharing. Didn't know you could do that if it was running headless. But what resolution will the screen share show up as? Is it whatever the last display that was connected?
Seems like the screen sharing would be confused if there was no display attached.
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Eric said 5:36AM on 12-18-2009
It comes in at whatever resolution you set it at.
GlennAC said 3:41AM on 12-29-2009
Bear in mind, though, that for those who want to buy a headless Mac Mini and be able to control via Screen Sharing (like I wanted to), you still need a display and keyboard to be able to initially turn ON Back to My Mac and Screen Sharing in the Preferences on the Mini. Without a keyboard & display, the Mini is just a locked box with no way to get into it without configuring those settings first.
As a household with 3 Mac notebooks, that was the only thing keeping me from buying a headless Mini. But for those households that have displays and keyboards that can be temporarily moved to the Mini, this is a great way to have a headless server for all your Macs. Just wish I could do so without having to buy a keyboard and display that I will only use occasionally.
Diogo said 4:58AM on 12-21-2009
Hi
First of all, sorry for my far from perfect english, I'll try my best to explain my doubt.
I've a brand new mac mini that I use as my main computer, and across the wall i've got my living room where I've connected my LCD to the mini to use as a media center.
I use a new apple wireless keyboard that I want to use to control the mini, but the signal doesn't cross the wall, and becomes useless in the living room.
So, is it possible to add a second bluetooth receiver near the TV with an usb extension? will it work?
I've tried with an old and cheap bluetooth dongle i had around but i couldn't get it to work (I'm sure if it's even compatible with mac).
Thanks
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Loneoak said 6:19PM on 12-21-2009
For next time:
I run my Time Machine backups on the external drive attached to my Time Capsule's USB (the Capsule's hard drive was no longer large enough for backups of my multiple computers together). I have set up my MBP to mount the drive whenever I boot up, but whenever I take it out of the network I have to manually mount it again in order for Time Machine to run. Is there any way to automatically mount it that is user-friendly for a person sorta scared of the Terminal?
I suppose I could require a login every time my computer wakes from sleep, but that's no fun.
I have 10.6.2, running on a unibody MBP and a unibody MB. The Time Capsule has the latest updates.
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GlennAC said 3:52AM on 12-29-2009
Lonaoak, I have an early 2008 MacBook Pro backing up to a WD 500GB Essential HD attached to the USB port of my Time Capsule everyday, and I don't have to mount it.
However, when I first configured this setup, I did click the TC icon in the Sidebar. This prompted me to "Connect As..." where I enter the TCs' Name and password (Note: NOT your own username and password). Then I clicked "Remember this password in my keychain" (This setting is now found in the Airport Utility under Disks/ File Sharing in 10.6 BTW). Once this was done the first time, I never have to enter this information again unless I change the destination of my Time Machine backups, which I periodically do when I divert backups to a Firewire drive connected to my Mac directly.
So it is possible to avoid this nuisance. Try it. Cheers!